Millions of Ukrainians face conscription into Russian army after Moscow issues passports in occupied territory

Millions of Ukrainians face conscription into Russian army after Moscow issues passports in occupied territory

The Independent

Story by Alex Crof

08/03/2025

 

수백만 명의 우크라이나인이 모스크바가 점령지에서 여권을 발급한 후 러시아 군대에 징집될 위기에 처해 있습니다.

알렉스 크로프트(Alex Croft)의 이야기

 

'The UK is resisting a quick peace in Ukraine' - YouTube

 

Russia has issued millions of passports to Ukrainians living in illegally Russian-occupied territory, leaving them at risk of conscription into its army, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.

Around 3.5 million Russian passports have been issued to Ukrainians, Moscow’s interior minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said. This means around 700,000 have been issued since March 2024, when 2.8 million had been handed out.

러시아가 러시아 점령 영토에 불법 거주하고 있는 우크라이나인들에게 수백만 개의 여권을 발급해 자국 군대에 징집될 위험에 처해 있다고 영국 국방부가 밝혔다.

약 350만 개의 러시아 여권이 우크라이나인들에게 발급되었다고 모스크바 내무부 장관 블라디미르 콜로콜체프(Vladimir Kolokoltsev)가 말했다. 이는 2024년 3월 이후 약 700,000개가 발급되었으며 280만 개가 발급되었음을 의미합니다.

 

Holding a Russian passport in the occupied territories has been made necessary for Ukrainians who want to access healthcare, retirement income, social services, or prove property ownership. A Russian law stipulated that anyone in the occupied territories who did not have a Russian passport by 1 July 2024 was subject to imprisonment as a “foreign citizen”.

점령지에서 러시아 여권을 소지하는 것은 의료 서비스, 퇴직 소득, 사회 서비스를 이용하거나 부동산 소유권을 증명하려는 우크라이나인에게 필수가 되었습니다. 러시아 법에 따르면 점령지 내에서 2024년 7월 1일까지 러시아 여권을 소지하지 않은 사람은 누구나 "외국 시민"으로 투옥될 수 있습니다.

Russia is making it necessary for Ukrainians to hold Russian passports to access basic services (AFP via Getty)

 

The eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are all partially under Russian control, with Putin’s forces having controlled much of south and east Ukraine since its invasion in February 2022. Millions of Ukrainians live under Russian control.

Incentives are also offered as part of the passport, including a stipend to leave the occupied territory and move to Russia, pensions for retirees, humanitarian aid, and money for new parents who have children with Russian birth certificates.

우크라이나 동부 지역인 도네츠크, 루한스크, 자포리자, 헤르손은 모두 부분적으로 러시아의 통제하에 있으며, 푸틴의 군대는 2022년 2월 침공 이후 우크라이나 남부와 동부 대부분을 통제하고 있습니다. 수백만 명의 우크라이나인이 러시아의 통제 하에 살고 있습니다.

또한 여권의 일부로 인센티브가 제공되는데, 여기에는 점령지를 떠나 러시아로 이주할 수 있는 급여, 퇴직자를 위한 연금, 인도주의적 지원, 러시아 출생 증명서를 가진 자녀를 둔 새 부모를 위한 돈 등이 포함됩니다.

 

For each Russian passport and birth certificate issued, it becomes more difficult for Ukraine to reclaim its lost land and children – and it allows Russia to claim a right to defend its new citizens against a hostile neighbour.

 

“Russian efforts to enforce governance in illegally occupied territory, and to coerce and compel Ukrainians to accept Russian passports, demonstrate the Russian senior leadership’s continuing commitment to, and pursuit of, a Russification policy,” the UK Ministry of Defence said. “Possession of a Russian passport also constitutes eligibility for conscription into the Russian military. Ukrainians without a Russian passport also face the seizure of their property by authorities.”

 

러시아 여권과 출생증명서가 발급될 때마다 우크라이나가 잃어버린 땅과 아이들을 되찾는 것이 더욱 어려워지고 있으며, 러시아는 적대적인 이웃에 맞서 새로운 시민을 지킬 권리를 주장할 수 있게 된다.

영국 국방부는 "불법 점령 지역에서 통치를 시행하고 우크라이나인들에게 러시아 여권을 받아들이도록 강요하고 강요하려는 러시아의 노력은 러시아 고위 지도부가 러시아화 정책에 대한 지속적인 헌신과 추구를 보여준다"고 밝혔다. "러시아 여권을 소지하는 것도 러시아군에 징집될 수 있는 자격을 구성합니다. 러시아 여권이 없는 우크라이나인들도 당국에 의해 재산을 압류당할 위기에 처해 있다"고 말했다.

Residents Yekaterina Tkachenko, 75, and Maria Seryogova, 49, walk past ruins of buildings as they come to visit their apartments destroyed in Pisky, a Russian controlled region of Ukraine (Reuters)

 

Russia has a history of enforcing citizenship on Ukrainians, after adopting a similar approach after it annexed Crimea in 2014. Russian citizenship was automatically given to permanent residents of the peninsula and those who refused lost rights to jobs, healthcare and property.

 

 

In eastern Ukraine, Russia first passed laws to make it easier to obtain passports in May 2022, before introducing punishments for those who did not accept citizenship in April 2023. Russians could be considered stateless and required to register with Moscow’s internal affairs ministry.

 

Hundreds of properties deemed “abandoned” were seized by the Russian government after officials said a Russian passport was needed to prove property ownership.

 

“If someone got their passport in August 2022 or earlier, they are most certainly pro-Russian, Oleksandr Rozum, a lawyer who left the occupied city of Berdyansk and now assists Ukrainians under occupation, said in 2024. “If a passport was issued after that time – it was most certainly forced,” he added.

 

Ministry of Defence 

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10:30 PM · Mar 7, 2025

 

The area controlled by Russia has grown in the past year, with Putin’s forces steadily edging forward in eastern areas, taking village by village as the Ukrainian military struggles with manpower issues.

 

But Russian forces have also faced difficulty in sustaining the vast numbers of troops needed to fight their war of attrition in Ukraine, and their enforcement of passports on Ukrainians may come as part of an effort to increase its pool of frontline manpower.

 

Moscow has made use of Russian prisoners to help compensate for the huge losses it suffers on the battlefield as a result of what has been described as a “meat grinder” strategy – in which thousands of troops are sent charging at Ukrainian defence lines in an attempt to overcome them through sheer manpower.

 

Thousands of North Korean troops sent by Pyongyang have also supplemented Russian forces on the ground.

 

 

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